Centennial  Address 


The  History  of 

St.  Luke's  Parish 


BY 

Professor  Archibald  Henderson 

PH.D.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D. 
OF  THE 

University  of  North  Carolina 


ARS  ET  SC>ElrsriA 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/historyofstlukesOOhend 


St.  Luke's  Church,  Salisbury,  N.  C. 


The  History  of  St.  Luke's  Parish 

AND 

The  Beginnings  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  Rowan  County 


Address  by 
Archibald  Henderson 

Delivered  in  St.  Luke's  Church,  Salisbury,  N.  C,  on  October  19, 1924, 
in  Commemoration  of  the  CentenniaLof  the  Union  of  St.  Luke's 
Parish  with  the  Diocese  o/  North  Carolina 


A  Centennial  Prayer 


Almighty  God,  the  God  of  our  Fathers,  in  whose 
Name  others  have  labored  and  we  have  entered  into 
their  labors,  we  give  Thee  hearty  thanks  for  the 
grace  and  virtue,  the  forethought  and  liberality  of 
Thy  servants  in  this  parish  through  a  hundred  years 
of  Thy  mercies  and  blessings.  And  we  pray  Thee 
that  we  of  our  day  may  be  inflamed  to  leave  to  those 
who  come  after  us  a  similar  record  of  fruitful  lives 
by  being  obedient  to  Thy  will  and  by  giving  freely 
of  ourselves  and  of  our  substance  to  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  ignorant,  the  conversion  of  wrongdoers 
and  the  building  up  of  Thy  Kingdom  here  and 
everywhere.  Increase  our  labors  and  our  laborers, 
multiply  our  givers,  enlarge  our  gifts,  that  we  may 
honor  Thee  and  magnify  Thy  Holy  Name,  now  and 
evermore,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 


An  Historical  Address 


The  history  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  the  centennial 
of  which  we  celebrate  today,  is  a  theme  which  might 
well  inspire  any  churchman — especially  one  who,  like 
myself,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  has 
made  a  diligent  and  loving  study  of  this  great  and 
historic  county  of  Rowan.  In  order  to  realize  the 
missionary  labors  and  devoted  services  which  laid  the 
foundations  for  this  holy  institution,  I  must  ask  you 
to  go  back  with  me  in  fancy,  three  quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury before  1824,  to  the  earliest  days  of  Salisbury. 
A  wealth  of  documents,  hitherto  unknown  or  unused, 
together  with  the  rich  depository  of  the  Colonial  and 
State  Records  of  North  Carolina,  will  enable  us  to 
gain  a  "close-up"  view  of  the  difficult  beginning  of 
the  Episcopal  church  in  Rowan. 

On  April  12,  1753,  Matthew  Rowan,  the  acting 
governor,  approved  a  bill  for  the  erection  of  a  county 
and  parish,  by  the  name  of  Rowan  County  and  St. 
Luke's  Parish.  The  following  year,  however,  this  act 
was  revoked  by  George  II,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Assembly  had  begun  to  exercise  more  power  than 
was  entirely  agreeable  to  the  royal  government  in 
England  and  that  by  the  establishment  of  new  coun- 
ties the  Assembly  was  increased  in  membership  too 
rapidly.  Two  years  later,  however,  with  the  consent 
of  the  king,  Rowan  was  re-established  with  the  same 

Page  Three 


305507 


boundaries  and  limits  as  formerly,  and  all  deeds  and 
conveyances  of  land  made  during  the  period  of  the 
revocation  were  declared  valid. 

It  is  the  year  1755.  This  town,  named  after  the 
cathedral  town  of  Salisbury,  England,  is  but  just 
laid  out,  the  court  house  built,  and  7  or  8  houses 
erected.  In  the  entire  county  of  Rowan,  which  was 
bounded  to  the  westward  in  the  charter  only  by  "the 
South  Seas,"  there  are  only  about  1250  taxables. 
Thirteen  years  later  this  number  had  trebled.  At  the 
beginning  of  1766  Governor  Tryon  ventured  the 
opinion  that  North  Carolina  was  being  settled  faster 
than  any  other  province,  and  that  in  the  preceding 
autumn  and  winter  about  one  thousand  wagons  with 
accompanying  families  had  passed  through  Salisbury. 
When  George  Washington  passed  through  Salisbury 
a  quarter  of  a  century  later  (1791)  he  recorded  in 
his  diary:  "Salisbury  is  but  a  small  place  altho  it  is 
the  county  town  and  the  district  court  is  held  in  it; 
.  .  .  there  is  about  three  hundred  souls  in  it  and 
tradesmen  of  different  kinds."  Whether  the  Father 
of  his  Country  meant  to  intimate  that  the  tradesmen 
represented  "soulless  corporations"  is  not  clear  j  but 
we  will  charitably  give  both  Washington  and  the 
tradesmen  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 

The  many  acts  on  the  statute  books  of  these  early 
times  clearly  demonstrate  the  efforts  of  the  royal 
government  of  the  province  to  make  the  Church  of 
England  the  established  church  of  North  Carolina. 
We  must  recall  that  the  freeholders,  that  is  men 

Page  Four 


owning  fifty  acres  of  land  or  a  lot  in  some  town,  were 
required,  under  penalty  of  twenty  shillings,  to  elect 
twelve  vestrymen  to  serve  three  years.  The  vestry- 
men so  elected  had  to  subscribe  on  oath  that  they 
would  "not  oppose  the  doctrine,  discipline  and  liturgy 
of  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  established."  If 
a  dissenter  was  elected  and  failed  to  qualify,  he  was 
liable  to  a  fine.  The  vestry  was  authorized  to  levy  a 
tax  of  ten  shillings  on  each  taxable  in  the  parish  for 
the  erection  of  churches  or  chapels,  the  payment  of 
ministers,  purchasing  a  glebe  and  erecting  a  parson- 
age. According  to  an  act  of  1765,  the  minister  of  a 
parish  was  to  receive  an  annual  salary  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  pounds,  six  shillings,  and  eight 
pence,  and  a  fee  of  twenty  shillings  for  every  mar- 
riage solemnized  in  the  parish,  whether  he  performed 
the  services  or  not,  provided  he  did  not  neglect  or 
refuse  to  do  so. 

The  marriage,  parish  and  vestry  acts  of  the  prov- 
ince were  so  unpopular  in  the  west,  of  which  Salis- 
bury was  the  center,  that  little  attention  was  paid  to 
them  by  the  inhabitants.  Various  petitions  were  pre- 
sented to  the  Assembly  asking  for  their  repeal,  one 
such  petition  (Mecklenburg  County,  1769)  actually 
stating  that  if  Rowan,  Mecklenburg,  and  Tryon 
"were  wholly  relieved  from  the  grievances  of  the 
marriage  act  and  the  vestry  acts,  it  would  greatly 
encourage  the  settlement  of  the  frontiers,  and  make 
them  a  stronger  barrier  to  the  interior  parts  of  the 
province  against  a  savage  enemy."  The  dissenters, 

Page  Five 


305507 


who  constituted  a  majority  of  the  population  of 
Rowan,  particularly  objected  to  the  marriage  act, 
under  which  no  minister  or  magistrate  could  perform 
the  rite  of  marriage  without  a  license  or  the  publica- 
tion of  banns — an  act  which  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters in  the  west  consistently  disregarded.  In  Salisbury 
and  environs,  according  to  my  father's  estimate,  the 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  amounted  to 
from  one-fourth  to  one-third  of  the  population.  On 
one  occasion,  probably  between  1764  and  1768,  sun- 
dry inhabitants  of  the  county  of  Rowan  petitioned 
for  a  "lawful  vestry,"  complaining  that  the  dissent- 
ers "from  dread  of  submitting  to  the  national  church, 
should  a  lawful  vestry  be  established,  (would)  elect 
such  of  their  own  community  as  evade  the  Acts  of 
Assembly  and  refuse  the  oaths — whence  we  can  never 
expect  (i.  e.,  without  a  lawful  vestry)  the  regular 
enlivening  beams  of  the  Gospel."  These  churchmen 
prayed  that  means  be  taken  for  compelling  persons 
chosen  vestrymen  to  take  the  oaths  prescribed,  or  such 
other  means  as  may  produce  a  regular  lawful  vestry. 

Difficulties  arising  from  dissatisfaction  with  these 
acts,  especially  in  a  county  populated  by  inhabitants 
of  almost  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  professing  relig- 
ious tenets  of  every  sort,  from  the  beginning  con- 
fronted the  Church  of  England  in  Rowan  and  finally 
reached  a  dramatic  crisis.  Yet  we  must  not  conclude 
that  the  Church  was  wholly  neglected  by  the  provin- 
cial authorities.  The  first  stronghold  of  church  people 
in  Rowan  was  not  here  in  Salisbury,  but  in  the  Jersey 

Page  Six 


Settlement,  in  the  neighborhood  of  present  Linwood. 
As  the  result  of  an  exhaustive  investigation,  I  con- 
clude that  a  settlement  was  made  there  by  people 
from  New  Jersey,  probably  from  the  neighborhood 
of  Scotch  Plains  (now  Plainfield)  some  time  prior  to 

1 754.  This  was  perhaps  the  colony  referred  to  by  the 
Moravian  Bishop  Spangenburg  in  his  diary  of  1 752- 
53.  The  Rev.  Benjamin  Miller,  who  was  the  pastor 
of  Scotch  Plains  Baptist  Church,  visited  Rowan 
County  in  1 754  and  conducted  services  for  the  inhab- 
itants of  all  denominations  at  their  "meeting  house" 
in  the  Jersey  Settlement  as  early  as  September  3, 

1755.  The  Rev.  Hugh  McAden,  the  Presbyterian 
missionary,  in  his  diary  complains  of  the  activities 
of  Miller  j  but  after  making  Miller's  acquaintance, 
he  spoke  favorably  of  him  and  in  company  with  him 
preached  at  the  Jersey  "meeting  house"  on  January 
11,  1756.  In  his  report  to  the  Secretary  for  the 
Colonies  (March  29,  1764),  Governor  Dobbs  says 
there  are  six  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
the  entire  province.  Regarding  one  of  these,  named 
Miller,  he  speaks  in  unfavorable  terms  as  to  his 
manner  of  living,  stating:  "I  had  the  misfortune  to 
recommend  (Miller)  to  be  ordained  upon  my  first 
coming  over  (1754-5)  upon  a  petition  of  many  in- 
habitants of  Rowan  County."  There  were,  then,  two 
preachers  named  Miller — one  Baptist,  one  Church 
of  England — preaching  in  Rowan  County  at  the 
same  time — unless  indeed  these  two  Millers  were 
one  and  the  same  person.  We  do  know  that  in  1767 

Page  Seven 


a  Rev.  Mr.  Miller,  of  the  Church  of  England,  was 
the  incumbent  by  presentation  of  St.  Patrick's,  Dobbs 
Parish,  which  had  been  cut  off  from  St.  Luke's. 

In  1755  or  1756,  a  Baptist  preacher,  the  Rev. 
John  Gano,  of  New  Jersey,  who  had  formerly  visited 
the  Jersey  Settlement  twice,  settled  there  in  response 
to  repeated  solicitations.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  a 
meeting  house  was  built,  which  was  attended  by  the 
inhabitants  of  various  denominations.  "In  order  that 
all  might  be  concerned  upon  various  occasions,"  says 
Gano  in  his  autobiography,  "we  appointed  a  board  of 
trustees,  some  of  each  denomination.  They  continued 
to  be  united  while  I  remained  there." — which  was 
until  the  spring  of  17^9.  A  deed  for  the  land  on 
which  this  meeting-house  had  been  standing  since 
1755  or  6  was  not  executed  until  some  twenty  years 
later  (1775)  to  the  trustees  of  the  United  Congrega- 
tion of  the  Jersey  Meeting-House :  to  James  Macay, 
Esq.,  Benjamin  Rounceville,  and  Herman  Butner, 
described  respectively  as  professors  of  the  Church  of 
England,  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  Baptists. 
In  the  Moravian  Diary  preserved  at  Salem,  this  set- 
tlement around  present  Linwood  is  described  in  1756 
as  the  "Jersey  (Irish)  Settlement."  The  great  grand- 
father of  James  Macay,  the  leading  man  in  the  Jer- 
sey Settlement,  was,  however,  an  emigrant  from 
Scotland,  as  stated  in  the  will  of  his  son,  Spruce 
Macay,  famous  jurist,  and  preceptor  in  the  law  here, 
of  both  Andrew  Jackson  and  William  Richardson 
Davie. 


Page  Eight 


It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land people  in  Rowan  were  wholly  neglected  by  the 
colonial  authorities.  Governor  William  Try  on,  who 
had  close  family  affiliations  with  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel — two  of  its  treasurers 
being  presumably  his  father  and  uncle,  Charles  and 
William  Try  on  respectively — was  a  devoted  church- 
man, and  labored  unceasingly  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  Established  Church  in  the  Province  of  North 
Carolina.  Rev.  George  Micklejohn,  the  minister  of 
St.  Matthews  Parish,  Orange  County  (1766-1776), 
writes  of  Tryon,  presumably  before  the  days  of 
Regulation  troubles:  "He  rules  a  willing  people  with 
the  indulgent  tenderness  of  a  common  father."  Writ- 
ing to  the  Secretary  of  the  Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  October  1,  17/6,  shortly 
after  the  arrival  of  Parson  Micklejbhn  in  the 
Province,  Governor  Tryon  says:  "I  have  great  expec- 
tations from  Mr.  Micklejohn;  he  is  lately  gone  into 
Rowan  County."  In  addition  to  this  visitation  of  the 
Rev.  George  Micklejohn^  the  Rev.  Richard  Sankey, 
said  to  have  been  of  Virginia,  visited  Rowan  County 
in  very  early  times;  and  he  was  afterwards  called  to 
Rowan  County  (prior  to  1767),  but  presumably  did 
not  accept  the  call.  My  father  believed  that,  although 
said  to  be  a  Presbyterian,  Mr.  Sankey  had  probably 
received  Episcopal  ordination.  In  the  summer  of 
1769,  the  Rev.  Charles  Cupples,  St.  John's  Parish, 
Bute,  made  a  tour  through  Rowan  and  baptized  many 
persons. 

Page  Nine 


With  the  arrival  of  the  Rev.  Theodoras  Swaine 
Drage  in  Rowan  in  1769  begins  the  most  dramatic 
struggle  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
St.  Luke's  Parish,  and  indeed  in  the  entire  colony. 
On  May  29,  1 769,  he  was  "licensed  for  the  Planta- 
tions" by  the  Bishop  of  London.  The  transcripts 
made  by  the  late  Dr.  Murdoch  from  the  records  of 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  enable 
me  to  tell  in  much  greater  detail  than  has  been  hith- 
erto possible, the  story  of  this  bitter  religious  struggle. 
On  November  12,  1769,  Governor  Tryon  addressed 
a  letter  to  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Vestry  of  St.  Luke's 
Parish,  as  follows: 

"The  Reverend  Mr.  Drage,  who  is  lately  arrived 
from  England,  warmly  recommended  to  me,  waits 
on  you  to  officiate  in  your  parish  for  the  space  of  two 
or  three  months,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time, 
should  he  give  satisfaction  in  his  sacred  calling,  and 
his  situation  prove  agreeable  to  him,  I  purpose  to 
give  him  letters  of  Presentation  and  Induction  to 
your  parish,  agreeable  to  the  petition  of  sundry  of 
the  inhabitants  of  your  county,  delivered  to  me  when 
I  was  in  Salisbury.  .  . 

The  religious  struggle  which  now  began  was  as 
revolutionary  in  character  as  the  civil  uprisings  of 
the  people  against  the  royal  authority,  which  event- 
uated in  the  American  Revolution.  The  Dissenters 
boldly  said,  according  to  Drage,  (1770)  "that  as  they 
have  opposed  England  in  endeavoring  to  intrude 
on  their  civil  rights,  they  also  shall,  and  have  a  right, 

Page  Ten 


to  oppose  any  Intrusion  on  their  religious  rights" — 
a  maxim,  I  presume,  says  Drage,  prophetically, 
"dangerous  in  itself,  not  only  with  respect  to  this 
country  and  the  neighboring  counties,  but  to  the  whole 
back  frontier  of  America,  principally  settled  with 
Sectaries,  and  is  deserving  of  the  attention  of  govern- 
ment, before  power  is  added  to  inclination."  Writing 
to  Governor  Tryon  from  Salisbury,  March  13,  1770, 
Drage  says  that  he  has  done  everything  in  his  power 
to  accommodate  and  pacify  the  Irish  Dissenters, 
claiming  only  the  office  of  Curate,  and  agreeing  to 
ratify  without  fee  the  marriage  licenses  issued  by  the 
Dissenting  Clergymen  or  Magistrates.  Although 
two-thirds  of  the  population  of  Rowan  County,  ac- 
cording to  Drage,  were  of  the  Church  of  England, 
surely  an  overstatement,  the  Dissenters  held  the 
upper  hand,  by  reason  of  a  very  curious  state  of 
affairs.  The  Irish  Dissenters,  for  the  most  part,  had 
come  into  the  county  before  the  closing  of  Lord 
Granville's  land  offices  and  had  become  possessed  of 
patents  j  whereas  many  of  the  Church  of  England 
people  had  come  in  after  the  closing  of  the  land 
offices  and  so  had  been  unable  to  obtain  titles  to  their 
land,  for  which  they  held  only  bonds.  As  a  vestry- 
man was  required  by  law  to  hold  title  to  50  acres  of 
land,  the  Dissenters  constituted  the  majority  of  the 
freeholders.  In  1769  they  elected  a  vestry  who,  they 
were  assured  in  advance,  would  not  qualify — and, 
according  to  Drage,  made  up  a  "corruption  fund," 
as  we  would  say  nowadays — to  pay  their  fines  for  not 

Page  Eleven 


* 


qualifying,  not  only  for  that  year,  but  for  years  to 
come.  On  April  16,  1770,  they  planned  to  do  this 
again — declaring  they  could  keep  out  the  Church  by 
this  means,  had  done  so,  and  always  would.  "I  plainly 
perceive,"  says  Drage,  "if  I  lose  my  hold  it  would  be 
such  a  discouragement  to  the  present  members  of  the 
Church  of  England  they  would  never  rally  again, 
many  of  them  would  quit  and  go  into  Provinces 
where  they  could  have  a  free  exercise  of  their  reli- 
gion, others  would  become  absorbed  up  in  and  become 
of  the  same  principles,  as  the  people  they  staid 
amongst."  These  were  indeed  words  of  prophecy  j 
for  the  Dissenters,  by  their  resolution  not  to  pay 
taxes  to  the  Established  Church  of  their  oppressors, 
not  only  helped  in  their  way  to  precipitate  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution:  they  virtually  throttled  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  in  Rowan  County  for  half  a 
century. 

The  attempt  of  the  Royal  Government  to  thrust 
an  Established  Church  upon  people  of  opposite 
religious  convictions  resulted  in  complete  failure.  On 
Easter  Monday,  1770,  as  anticipated  by  Drage,  the 
Dissenters  elected  a  vestry,  all  of  whom  were  Dis- 
senters, and  two  of  them  elders.  These  vestrymen 
assured  Drage  that,  if  he  would  take  up  a  subscrip- 
tion, they  would  subscribe  liberally  and  retain  him 
as  minister  on  those  terms.  Drage  declined,  on  the 
just  technical  ground,  that  for  him  to  do  so  would 
be  a  direct  violation  of  the  law.  The  Dissenters — 
protestants  of  the  classic  type,  imbued  with  those 


Page  Twelve 


principles  of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  for  the 
preservation  of  which  they  had  come  to  America, 
principles  which  gave  rise  to  the  Revolution — "said 
it  was  their  opinion,  every  one  ought  to  pay  their  own 
clergy,  and  what  the  law  required  was  a  constraint, 
the  other  would  be  a  free  act."  The  second  list  of 
twelve  persons,  who  were  supported  by  the  church 
people,  was  defeated;  but  these  defiantly  challenged 
those  elected  to  qualify.  The  Sheriff  of  Rowan 
County,  Morgan  Bryan,  whose  brother  Samuel  was 
the  father-in-law  of  the  great  hunter  and  scout, 
Daniel  Boone,  called  upon  the  elected  vestry  to 
qualify  on  the  Monday  following,  and  on  that 
day  again  argued  at  length  with  them  in  the  interests 
of  the  county,  in  the  effort  to  induce  them  to  qualify. 
After  the  dissenting  vestry  refused  to  state  whether 
or  not  they  would  qualify,  the  members  of  the 
second  list,  representing  the  church  people,  went 
to  the  court  house,  and  entered  their  names  down 
as  a  vestry.  Mr.  Drage  then  read  to  the  assembled 
company  the  letter  from  Governor  Tryon  given 
above,  whereupon  the  two  members  of  the  Dissent- 
ers' list  who  were  the  representatives  in  the  assem- 
bly, Griffith  Rutherford  and  Matthew  Locke,  were 
"alarmed,"  says  Drage,  and  "fired  away  freely 
scandal  to  the  church  and  contemptuous  expressions 
as  to  the  power  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  Parliament 
of  England."  Here  indeed  were  fire-eating  revolu- 
tionists in  Rowan,  five  years  before  the  "Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  of  Independence."  Drage  took  up 

Page  Thirteen 


the  cudgels  and  a  memorable  altercation  thereupon 
ensued  from  which  Drage  declared  that  he  emerged 
victorious,  according  to  the  verdict  of  the  auditors. 
Drage  had  the  law  on  his  side;  but  the  Dissenters 
had  the  right  on  theirs — even  although  their  pro- 
cedure was  a  dog-in-the-manger  act  and  over  a  long 
period  of  time  worked  great  damage  not  only  to  the 
Established  Church  of  England,  but  also  to  the  spiri- 
itual  progress  and  welfare  of  the  parish  and  county. 
After  the  altercation,  listened  to  in  deep  silence  by 
the  people,  was  at  an  end,  the  nominal  vestry  of  the 
second  list  adjourned  to  another  place,  whereupon 
they  drafted  a  letter  to  Governor  Tryon,  thanking 
him  for  sending  them  a  minister  and  requesting  him 
to  give  Mr.  Drage  an  immediate  Presentation  of  In- 
duction. When  May  1 5th,  the  last  day  to  qualify, 
came,  the  Dissenters'  vestry  walked  up  and  down  the 
streets  of  Salisbury  all  day  long;  and  that  night 
occupied  the  court  house  as  if  it  were  a  fortress, 
actually  remaining  there  the  entire  night  of  the  fif- 
teenth, to  prevent  the  second  vestry  from  entering 
and  qualifying. 

Letters  and  petitions  now  flew  thick  and  fast. 
Drage  wrote  a  long,  able,  and  in  many  respects  extra- 
ordinary letter  to  Governor  Tryon  giving  a  history 
of  the  controversy.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  employ 
modern  slang,  denominating  those  voters  who  chose 
a  Dissenting  vestry  in  order  to  keep  out  the  Church 
of  England  people,  as  "rotten  nuts."  Tryon  replied, 
deploring  the  opposition  of  the  Dissenters  to  the 

Page  Fourteen 


Established  Church,  a  religion,  he  declares,  that  "was 
engrafted  upon  and  grew  up  with  the  Constitution 
of  this  Colony,  a  religion  that  has  ever  since  been 
recognized  and  upheld  and  was  by  the  act  of  the 
Legislature  in  1765  established  upon  most  solid 
foundations."  Unwilling  to  offend  the  Presbyterians, 
who  had  strongly  supported  him  in  his  administra- 
tion, the  Governor  recommended  that  the  church 
people  memorialize  the  next  General  Assembly,  by 
enclosed  letters  of  Presentation  and  Induction.  This 
was  accordingly  done,  considerably  more  than  a  thou- 
sand people  signing  a  petition  to  the  Assembly  to 
remove  their  incapacity  for  voting  for  want  of  deeds. 
The  Dissenters  also  petitioned  the  Legislature  not  to 
be  required  to  pay  towards  the  support  of  the  Parish 
Minister,  and  to  be  permitted  to  publish  banns  and 
marry  by  their  own  clergy — a  petition  which  Drage 
characterized  as  "an  act  directly  levelled  at  the  Con- 
stitution." For  the  sake  of  historic  record,  I  give  here 
the  names  of  the  members  of  the  nominal  vestry, 
who,  according  to  Drage,  were  all  "members  of  the 
Church  of  England,  men  of  respect  and  character, 
except  one":  John  Ford,  John  Kimbrough,  Morgan 
Bryan,  James  Macay,  William  Fields,  Samuel  Bryan, 
George  Magoun,  John  Cowan,  Roger  Turner,  Evan 
Ellis,  William  Giles,  and  William  Cowan,  Sen'r. 
The  Dissenters'  list  consisted  of  nine  magistrates, 
two  of  whom  were  representatives  in  the  Assembly 
(Rutherford  and  Locke),  one  a  Captain  of  Militia, 


Page  Fifteen 


and  two  senior  elders,  (one  of  whom  was  named 
Allison) — all  Dissenters. 

This  was  a  curious  conflict — for,  according  to 
Drage,  the  numbers  of  those  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land and  those  desirous  of  its  establishment  (most  of 
whom  were  disqualified  for  want  of  deeds)  outnum- 
bered the  others  by  five  to  one;  and  on  Feb.  28, 
1771,  there  was  only  one  Dissenting  clergyman  in 
the  St.  Luke's  Parish.  The  Assembly  on  January  25, 
1771,  delayed  determination  upon  the  nominal  ves- 
try's petition  until  the  next  session  of  the  Assembly. 
"The  struggle  continued  unabated j  and  early  in  1772 
Drage  protested  to  Governor  Josiah  Martin  that  the 
Clerk  of  Court  encouraged  the  people  who  obtained 
marriage  licenses  to  have  the  rite  performed  by  the 
magistrates  instead  of  by  him  and  concealed  the  num- 
ber of  licenses  granted.  The  Dissenters,  according  to 
Governor  Martin,  writing  to  Earl  Dartmouth  on 
March  31,  1773,  "actually  expelled  Mr.  Drage,  the 
Rector,  a  very  worthy  clergyman,  by  withholding  his 
salary,  the  only  means  of  his  subsistence,  and  forced 
him  to  retire  to  an  Asylum,  to  which  he  was  invited 
in  South  Carolina."  Mr.  Drage  petitioned  the  Assem- 
bly for  relief,  and  Governor  Martin,  February  7, 
1773,  ventured  the  hope  that  the  "peculiar  hard  cir- 
cumstances" of  the  late  Rector  of  St.  Luke's  will  rec- 
ommend him  to  the  benevolence  of  the  House.  The 
Church's  effort  met  its  death  blow  when  John  Har- 
vey, Speaker,  reported  to  Governor  Josiah  Martin 
(February  20,  1773)  regarding  the  Rev.  Mr.  Drage's 


Page  Sixteen 


petition  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  House  "the  Laws 
of  the  Province  now  in  force  are  sufficient  to  remove 
the  grievances  complained  of."  Shortly  after  Drage's 
departure,  be  it  noted,  eighty-five  Dissenters  united 
in  a  petition  praying  that  the  Presbyterian  ministers 
be  allowed  to  marry  members  of  their  own  congrega- 
tion by  the  publication  of  banns. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  episodes,  indicating 
the  broad  spirit  of  the  Established  Church  and  its 
sympathetic  attitude  toward  the  German  Lutherans, 
who  at  this  time  employed  almost  identical  forms  of 
service  with  the  Episcopalians,  was  occasioned  by  the 
trip  of  two  prominent  Lutherans,  Christopher  Layrle 
of  Mecklenburg  and  Christopher  Rintelman  of 
Rowan,  to  England,  Holland,  and  Germany,  in 
1771,  to  secure  a  Lutheran  minister  and  a  school- 
master who  spoke  German  to  preach  to  the  German 
congregation,  and  to  teach  the  German  people  of 
Rowan,  Orange,  Mecklenburg,  and  Tryon,  who 
understood  no  English.  Dr.  Drage  officially  recom- 
mended their  mission,  so  too  did  Governor  Tryon,  so 
too  did  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel j  and  so  too  did  the  official  secular  head  of  the 
Church  of  England,  that  good  German,  George  III, 
who  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  minister  and 
schoolmaster:  as  King  of  England  and  as  Elector  of 
Hanover. 

For  four  long  years,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Drage  labored  unceasingly,  under  the  greatest 
difficulties,  for  the  advancement  of  the  Established 

Page  Seventeen 


Church.  Two  years  before  he  came  to  St.  Luke's 
Parish,  1767,  the  number  of  taxables  of  Rowan  is 
given  as  3,000 — and  the  inhabitants  are  officially 
described  from  Governor  Tryon's  office  as  "very 
able  j  mostly  Presbyterians."  During  the  year  from 
December  20,  1769,  to  December  20,  1770,  Mr. 
Drage  organized  about  40  congregations,  consisting 
of  7,000  souls  or  900  families,  inhabiting  a  country 
of  180  miles  in  length  and  120  miles  in  breadth j 
and  baptized  in  all  802  persons  between  the  ages  of 
one  and  sixty.  Two-thirds  of  the  people  were  of  the 
Church  of  England,  the  others  a  "motley  mixture," 
so  Mr.  Drage  reported  on  February  28,  1771.  The 
Irish  Dissenters,  he  declared,  "had  the  whole  power 
of  government,  as  to  these  parts,  invested  in  them  by 
the  late  governor,"  Arthur  Dobbs.  During  his  stay 
in  St.  Luke's  Parish  Drage  founded  a  chapel  in  the 
Jersey  settlement — near  the  present  house  of  Mr. 
Willie  Mears.  A  sincere  tribute  is  due  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Drage  for  the  indefatigable  efforts  he  put  forth  and 
the  sacrifices  he  made  in  behalf  of  the  Church  of 
England.  In  his  letter  to  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel,  February  28,  1771,  he  says: 
"I  am  greatly  obliged  to  the  Honorable  Society  for 
the  honor  that  hath  been  done  my  draughts,  as  I  have 
received  but  few  fees,  taking  nothing  for  Baptisms, 
no  burial  fees  allowed,  and  excepting  their  assistance 
entirely  at  my  own  expense,  as  there  is  a  year's  salary 
now  due  from  the  parish,  and  no  vestry  to  assess  it, 
and  have  but  little  expectation  but  it  will  be  the  same 


Page  Eighteen 


as  to  the  current  year  as  there  is  no  probability  of  a 
vestry.  No  great  reliance  can  be  had  on  a  free  dona- 
tion of  the  people,  as  money  is  scarce,  and  it  carries  a 
subjection  with  it."  In  writing  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel, 
July  22,  1770,  Governor  Tryon  says:  "I  conceive  the 
firmness  of  Dr.  Dr age's  conduct  claims  the  protection 
and  continuance  of  the  5006:7."  The  late  Dr.  Mur- 
doch has  stated  in  print  that  the  strength  for  the  case 
of  the  Established  Church  lay,  as  Mr.  Drage  stated, 
in  the  fact  that  the  laws  on  this  subject  had  been  the 
law  of  the  land  long  before  the  Dissenters  moved 
here.  But  in  a  manuscript  sketch  of  Governor  Tryon, 
Dr.  Murdoch  unequivocally  says  in  his  downright 
way:  "The  policy  he  tried  to  carry  out  was  then  the 
policy  of  all  the  friends  of  the  church,  to  maintain 
it  as  a  state  establishment.  It  failed  and  ought  to 
have  failed.  He  saw  that  the  church  needed  a  Bishop 
in  North  Carolina  and  if  he  had  obtained  one,  the 
history  of  the  church  in  the  state  might  have  been 
very  different." 

Dealt  thus  a  deadly  blow  by  the  Dissenters,  the 
church  lanquished  and  almost  died  in  Rowan  County. 
Exactly  half  a  century  elapsed  between  the  virtual 
expulsion  of  the  devoted  Drage  from  Rowan  in 
1773  and  the  establishment  of  the  present  St.  Luke's 
Parish  in  1823.  During  this  period,  indeed,  the 
Episcopal  Church  was  in  a  parlous  and  evanescent 
condition  in  the  entire  province  and  state.  In  the 
whole  state  of  North  Carolina  there  was  only  one 

Page  Nineteen 


more  clergyman  in  1822  than  there  was  in  1768 — 
a  gain  of  one  clergyman  in  54  years.  Despite  the 
efforts  to  revive  the  spirit  and  cause  of  Episcopacy 
in  North  Carolina,  through  the  conventions  of  1790, 
1793,  and  1794,  few  beneficial  effects  resulted;  and 
even  the  Rev.  Charles  Pettigrew,  who  was  elected 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  North  Carolina  in  1794, 
never  made  application  for  consecration.  The  history 
of  the  church  in  Rowan  and  western  North  Carolina 
during  this  period  is  told  almost  wholly  in  the  career 
of  the  famous  Parson  Miller — a  man  who  for  brav- 
ery, energy,  purity,  and  ability,  has  no  rival  in  the 
entire  religious  history  of  the  state,  of  all  denomina- 
tions, with  the  single  exception  of  Dr.  James  Hall, 
the  distinguished  Presbyterian  divine.  Miller's  career 
has  been  so  thoroughly  traversed  by  G.  D.  Bernheim, 
by  Bishop  Cheshire,  and  by  my  father,  that  I  shall 
not  repeat  it  here.  His  life  was  a  succession  of  ecclesi- 
astical transitions;  but  never,  amid  his  many  affilia- 
tions, did  he  waver  from  the  Episcopal  faith.  Born 
at  Baldovie,  near  Dundee,  Scotland,  July  11,  1758, 
he  was  reared  in  the  Jacobite  Episcopal  Church  under 
the  venerable  Bishop  Rait  of  Brechin;  and  was  de- 
signed for  the  Episcopal  ministry.  Coming  to  Amer- 
ica at  the  age  of  16,  he  soon  afterwards  joined  the 
army  of  Nathanael  Greene;  and  fought  bravely  in 
various  battles,  being  wounded  in  the  Battle  of  Long 
Island;  and  endured  the  epic  hardships  of  Valley 
Forge.  First  he  became  a  Methodist  preacher  and 
rode  the  circuit  in  North  Carolina  with  Dr.  Coke. 


Page  Twenty 


Later,  he  received  ordination  at  the  hands  of  the 
Lutherans  in  this  state  j  but  in  his  letter  of  orders 
he  had  it  expressly  stipulated  that  he  was  held  to  be 
"obliged  to  obey  ye  rules,  ordinances,  and  customs  of 
ye  Christian  Society  called  ye  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  America."  During  his  ministry  in  this  sec- 
tion, he  deserves  credit  for  founding  this  church  of 
St.  Luke's,  Christ  Church,  Rowan,  and  St.  John's 
Church,  in  Iredell. 

When  he  stood  up  here  in  Salisbury,  in  the  Dio- 
cesan Convention  in  1817,  representing  his  little 
congregations,  they  were,  says  Bishop  Cheshire,  "the 
only  congregations  in  North  Carolina,  outside  the 
three  towns  of  Edenton,  Newbern,  and  Wilmington, 
which  had  preserved  any  kind  of  being  from  the  time 
of  the  Tarborough  Conventions  until  the  successful 
organization  of  the  Diocese  in  1817."  I  think  St. 
Luke's  and  Rowan  have  just  cause  for  pride  in  the 
labors  of  Parson  Miller  and  in  the  fact  that  the  suc- 
cessful reorganization  of  the  Diocese  of  North  Caro- 
lina took  place  here  in  this  historic  old  town  of 
Salisbury.  When  Bishop  Richard  Channing  Moore 
was  shown  Miller's  Lutheran  orders  as  an  Episcopal 
clergyman  at  the  convention  of  1821,  he  is  said  to 
have  exclaimed:  "Why,  you  belong  to  us."  After 
three  decades  of  arduous  labors  in  the  cause  of  Christ 
as  an  Episcopal  minister  preaching  alternately  and 
simultaneously  to  Lutherans  and  Episcopalians,  Mil- 
ler was  ordered  deacon  in  the  forenoon  and  ordained 
priest  in  the  afternoon  of  May  1,  1821,  by  Bishop 

Page  Twenty-One 


Moore — port  after  stormy  seas.  He  now  resumed  his 
labors  with  all  the  energy  of  youth — labors  conse- 
crated with  the  names  of  Smyrna  and  Whitehaven  7 
Christ  Church,  the  story  of  which  has  been  so  well 
told  by  the  Rev.  R.  B.  Owen;  St.  Peter's,  Lincoln, 
St.  Peter's,  Lexington,  and  St.  Andrew's,  Burke.  Yet 
he  never  ceased  to  regret  what  he  called  his  "fatal 
error"  in  consenting  to  receive  Lutheran  ordination — 
even  though  he  was  actuated  by  the  noblest  principles 
of  Christian  fellowship:  to  carry  the  word  of  God 
to  his  fellowmen  of  all  creeds  and  denominations. 
The  story  of  his  missionary  labors  is  a  story  of  stren- 
uous physical  exertion  and  great  personal  self-sacri- 
fice. One  of  my  greatest  treasures  is  a  copy  of  his 
diary  telling  of  his  long  missionary  journeys — in 
one  of  which,  made  during  four  months  in  1 8 1 1 ,  he 
traversed  South  Carolina,  the  present  state  of  West 
Virginia,  the  Shenandoah  Valley  of  Virginia,  and 
the  eastern  part  of  Tennessee,  travelling  3,000  miles, 
baptizing  62  persons,  preaching  67  times,  and  receiv- 
ing $70.44  for  his  support  without  asking  for  a  cent. 

In  his  famous  historical  letter,  Parson  Miller 
categorically  attributed  the  virtual  dissolution  of  the 
Church  in  North  Carolina  to  the  great  wave  of  infi- 
delity set  in  motion  by  the  French  Revolution,  which 
inundated  this  country  for  several  decades,  and 
affected  the  people  of  all  denominations.  In  his  diary 
of  1813,  dealing  with  a  missionary  tour  in  Virginia, 
he  thus  visits  his  condemnation  upon  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son and  James  Madison:  "I  could  not  but  observe  the 

Page  Twenty-Two 


Archibald  Henderson,  Historian 
For  years  a  member  of  St.  Luke's  Parish. 


general  neglect,  or  rather  total  disregard,  of'  all 
religious  institutions,  in  passing  through  this  quarter: 
I  mean  the  counties  of  Orange,  Albemarle,  and  Nel- 
son. In  the  first  resides  the  present  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  the  second  the  late  President. 
Near  to  the  former  is  a  large  brick  church  in  ruin. 
It  may  be  supposed  by  some  that  these  observations 
proceed  from  a  malignant  disposition  of  mind;  but 
the  supposition  is  either  weak  or  wicked;  for  in  my 
view  an  enemy  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  worst  enemy  of  his  country,  whatever  his  profes- 
sions to  the  contrary  may  be ;  and  the  higher  he  is  in 
station  the  more  fatal  his  influence." 

Dying  on  May  13,  1834,  Parson  Miller  is  thus 
remembered  by  Bernheim,  the  Lutheran  historian: 
"Our  church  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  his  memory 
which  cannot  be  cancelled  or  forgotten";  by  Bishop 
Ives  of  North  Carolina,  who  described  Parson  Miller 
as  "a  clergyman  of  whom  we  may  emphatically  say, 
for  him  to  live  was  Christ;  and  to  die  is  gain." 

On  Monday  evening,  September  8,  1823,  St. 
Luke's  Parish  was  organized  by  Bishop  John  Stark 
Ravenscroft,  during  the  eighth  annual  convention  of 
the  Diocese  held  in  Salisbury.  At  the  next  annual 
convention,  held  at  Williamsboro,  in  1824,  this 
Parish  was  admitted  into  the  union  with  the  Diocese. 
I  have  before  me  now  a  copy  of  the  advertisement 
for  bids,  in  the  Western  Carolinian,  March  13,  1827, 
for  80,000  brick  and  a  large  quantity  of  pine  and  oak 

Page  Twenty-Three 


lumber,  planks  and  shingles — signed  by  Stephen  Lee 
Ferrand,  John  McClellan,  John  Beard,  Jr.,  Edward 
Cress,  and  Thomas  Chambers.  The  brick  were  burned 
by  the  widow  of  General  John  Steele,  and  the  ground 
for  the  church  was  given  by  Major  John  Beard — the 
deed  being  of  date,  September  15,  1827.  The  church 
was  erected  in  1828,  the  architect  being  the  Rev. 
Francis  L.  Hawks. 

The  history  of  this  parish,  down  to  the  incumb- 
ency of  the  late  Dr.  Murdoch,  has  been  so  fully  told 
by  my  father  in  the  chapter  in  Dr.  Rumple's  History 
of  Rowan  County,  entitled  "Episcopacy  in  Rowan," 
thus  I  shall  not  resume  it  here.  I  can  but  give  brief 
mention  of  the  various  devoted  men  who  have  faith- 
fully labored  here.  The  Rev.  Thomas  Wright  of 
New  York,  who  was  drawn  to  the  ministry  after 
almost  losing  his  life  at  sea,  took  charge  of  St. 
Luke's  in  1826,  serving  until  1832,  when  he  re- 
moved to  Tennessee,  where  he  did  a  splendid  work 
as  missionary  and  in  the  founding  of  churches.  He 
was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  John  Morgan,  a  native  of 
London,  England,  serving  until  1834.  He  was  eccen- 
tric, as  is  often  the  case  of  profound  scholars  who 
happen  to  be  ministers  as  well;  and  on  inheriting 
$30,000,  he  expended  $24,000  of  it  in  the  purchase 
of  4500  works  on  theology,  amounting  to  more  than 
8000  volumes.  He  was  an  amiable  man,  an  instruc- 
tive teacher,  delighted  to  do  kindnesses,  and  was 
Christ-like — or  as  we  say,  quixotic! — in  his  generos- 
ity— even  to  giving  to  a  shivering  beggar  the  over- 


Page  Twenty-Four 


coat  off  his  back  and  riding  home  without  one  in  the 
cold. 

The  next  incumbent  was  William  W.  Spear,  who 
went  to  school  in  Salisbury  to  the  able  teacher  and 
Presbyterian  preacher,  Rev.  Jonathan  Otis  Freeman. 
Both  of  my  grandmothers  attended  the  admirable 
school  conducted  by  Miss  Maria  Spear,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Spear's  sister.  After  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Spear, 
who  seems  to  have  been  discouraged  by  the  separa- 
tion of  St.  Luke's  from  Christ  Church,  the  Rowan 
congregation  were  ministered  to  by  the  Rev.  M.  A. 
Curtis,  then  missionary  deacon.  In  his  original  diary, 
which  I  have  examined,  he  describes  his  constant 
tours  through  western  North  Carolina  in  1835  from 
headquarters  at  Charlotte  to  Lincolnton,  Beattie's 
Ford,  St.  Andrew's  in  Burke,  Yadkin  Valley  in 
Wilkes,  Christ  Church,  Rowan,  and  St.  Luke's,  Salis- 
bury. He  records  preaching  at  times  in  Methodist 
Meeting  Houses  j  and  having  in  his  congregation 
Jews,  Unitarians,  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  Methodists, 
and  Episcopalians.  Later,  for  a  period  of  upwards  of 
thirty  years  he  was  rector  of  St.  Matthew's  Church, 
Hillsboro.  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  the  fol- 
lowing remarkable  entry  from  Mr.  Curtis'  diary, 
when  he  was  in  Boston  (November  5,  1833):  "At- 
tended the  first  of  the  fourth  course  of  lectures 
before  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History.  Price 
of  admission  to  the  course  with  the  privilege  of 
visiting  the  Society's  Cabinet  is  one  dollar.  The  lec- 
ture this  evening  by  Rev.  Ralph  W.  Emerson  was 

Page  Twenty-Five 


on  the  advantages  of  the  study  of  Natural  History. 
Several  hundred  were  present  and  seemed  highly 
gratified  with  the  address.  There  was  indeed  much 
elegance  in  it,  but  on  a  retrospect  there  seems  to  be 
very  little  of  it  that  is  tangible.  His  last  topic  of 
consideration  seemed  to  be  a  kind  of  occult  sympathy 
between  the  spirit  of  man  and  the  material  world,  in 
which  there  was  so  much  of  a  metaphysical  dreami- 
ness that  I  was  unable  to  catch  his  meaning — neither 
do  I  suppose  that  himself  knew  what  web  he  was 
weaving."  I  need  scarcely  add  that  this  young  minis- 
ter was  none  other  than  one  who  afterwards  became 
one  of  America's  greatest  writers  and  thinkers  but 
was  then  unknown  to  fame:  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Frederick  Davis,  a  native  of 
Wilmington,  N.  C,  whose  brother  was  the  Hon. 
George  Davis,  member  of  the  Confederate  Cabinet, 
labored  devotedly  here  for  the  decade  1836-1846. 
During  his  stay  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina, 
where  he  was  graduated  in  1 8 22, he  numbered  among 
his  friends  and  class-mates  James  K.  Polk,  after- 
wards President  of  the  United  States,  and  Otey, 
Green,  and  Polk,  afterwards  Bishops  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church,  and  Francis  L.  Hawks,  afterwards  fam- 
ous as  historian  and  divine.  He  was  instrumental  in 
building  Calvary  Church,  Wadesboro,  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Church,  Pittsboro,  and  St.  Andrew's  Church, 
Rowan,  which  was  consecrated  August  30,  1840. 
After  his  removal  to  South  Carolina,  he  was  elected 
Bishop  of  that  state,  being  consecrated  at  the  same 

Page  Twenty-Six 


time  as  Bishop  Atkinson  (Oct.  17,  1853).  In  his 
latter  years,  his  sight  failed  him  completely;  but  he 
bore  his  affliction  with  resignation  and  labored  bravely 
on  as  Bishop,  until  strength  as  well  as  sight  failed 
him.  We  revere  his  memory  and  treasure  his 
example. 

The  Rev  John  Haywood  Parker,  named  for  his 
maternal  uncle,  John  Haywood,  treasurer  of  North 
Carolina  (1789-1829),  was  born  in  Tarborough, 
January  21,  1813.  In  1832  he  was  valedictorian  of 
the  graduating  class  of  which  the  distinguished  ora- 
tor, Thomas  L.  Clingman,  was  the  salutatorian.  It 
is  worthy  of  record  that  his  valedictory  was  an  argu- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the 
negroes,  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  He  was 
twice  married:  to  Maria  Toole  Lawrence,  and  eigh- 
teen years  after  her  death,  to  a  daughter  of  Dr. 
Stephen.  Lee  Ferrand.  His  whole  ministry  was  spent 
in  St.  Luke's  Church,  Salisbury,  to  which,  for  a  time, 
was  joined  the  charge  of  two  country  parishes  in 
Rowan  county.  A  marble  shaft  in  this  churchyard 
bears  the  beautiful  tribute  which  many  of  you  have 
read.  Dr.  Murdoch  said  of  him:  "He  was  a  singu- 
larly pure,  amiable,  and  tender  spirit,  yet  strong  and 
manly  in  character.  He  was  truly  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  God  and  of  his  church.  .  .  In  his  parish  of 
St.  Luke's,  Salisbury,  he  was  a  devoted,  sympathetic 
and  diligent  pastor  and  priest,  whose  life  confirmed 
and  illustrated  the  gracious  words  that  came  from  the 


Page  Twenty-Seven 


pulpit .  .  .  His  faith  and  love  left  a  light  upon  the 
path  which  he  trod." 

The  Rev.  Thomas  G.  Haughton,  of  a  disting- 
uished family  of  eastern  North  Carolina,  who  was 
married  to  the  widow  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parker,  was 
rector  of  St.  Luke's  from  1858  to  1 866 j  a  brilliant 
preacher  and  a  lovable,  though  faulty,  man;  and  he 
was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  John  Huske  Tillinghast, 
who  served  from  1867  to  1872 — being  remembered 
by  his  parishioners,  my  father  says,  with  great  regard 
and  affection.  And  now  a  new  and  brighter  day  for 
St.  Luke's  is  ushered  in  with  the  coming  of  the  late 
Dr.  Francis  J.  Murdoch,  whom  so  many  of  us  knew, 
admired  and  revered.  He  was  born  in  Buncombe 
County,  North  Carolina,  March  17,  1846,  fourth  son 
and  tenth  child  of  William  and  Margaret  Murdoch, 
natives  of  Ireland,  but  of  Scotch  blood.  As  a  lad  of 
fifteen  he  enlisted  in  the  famous  First  North  Caro- 
lina Volunteers,  known  as  the  "Bethel  Regiment," 
and  served  until  the  end  of  1861.  He  won  distinction 
in  the  S.  C.  Military  Academy,  Charleston,  where 
he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  in  the  Cadet 
Corps.  After  teaching  in  Dr.  Buxton's  school  in 
Asheville,  he  continued  his  studies  for  the  ministry 
under  the  Rev.  Dr.  Buxton,  and  was  ordained  to  the 
Diaconate  in  this  Church  in  1868,  to  the  Priesthood 
in  1870  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  Edenton,  by  Bishop 
Atkinson.  After  serving  at  High  Shoals,  Gaston 
County,  and  as  missionary  in  Buncombe,  Haywood, 
and  Rutherford  counties,  he  entered  upon  his  duties 


Page  Twenty-Eight 


as  rector  of  St.  Luke's  on  June  7,  1872 — continuing 
here  for  thirty-seven  years — a  glorious  career  of 
Christian  service  severed  only  when  he  was  called 
to  rest,  June  21,  1909. 

Despite  the  devoted  labors  of  his  predecessors, 
the  "growth  both  of  the  town  and  of  the  parish," 
says  Bishop  Cheshire  in  a  memorable  memorial  ser- 
mon he  delivered  here  in  1910  which  I  am  privi- 
leged to  quote,  "seemed  to  have  been  slow  and 
languid,  and  little  progress  had  marked  the  decades 
immediately  preceding"  Dr.  Murdoch's  rectorship. 
New  life  was  imparted  to  St.  Luke's  by  Dr.  Mur- 
doch's energetic  efforts.  Besides  upwards  of  a  hun- 
dred baptisms  and  a  hundred  confirmations  each,  the 
number  of  communicants  doubled  in  the  first  five 
years.  Under  his  vigorous  policy  of  expansion,  there 
were  organized  or  vitalized:  St.  Mary's,  China 
Grove;  All  Saints,  Concord  ;  church  services  held  at 
Mocksville;  St.  Jude's,  Locke  township;  St.  Paul's, 
Chestnut  Hill;  and  St.  Peter's  Chapel.  In  1892  St. 
John's  Chapel  was  built  upon  a  lot  given  by  Mrs. 
Mary  Steele  Henderson.  In  1893  St.  George's 
Chapel,  Woodleaf,  was  built  to  accommodate  the 
congregation  of  old  St.  Andrew's;  and  a  few  years 
later,  the  little  Chapel  of  St.  Mark's.  Due  to  Dr. 
Murdoch  also  was  the  erection  of  St.  Cuthbert's 
Chapel,  Proximity,  near  Greensboro ;  and  the  Church 
of  the  Good  Shepherd  at  Cooleemee,  in  which  he 
co-operated  with  that  large-hearted  philanthropist 
and  devoted  churchman,  Mr.  W.  A.  Erwin.  Says 

Page  Twenty-Nine 


Bishop  Cheshire:  "Dr.  Murdoch  was  the  pioneer  of 
'Parochial  Missions'  in  this  section  of  the  country — 
and  organized  'The  Evangelist  Brotherhood,'  con- 
sisting of  the  Rev.  Wm.  S.  Bynum,  the  Rev.  Chas. 
J.  Curtis,  and  himself,  for  the  purpose  of  promoting 
and  carrying  on  this  kind  of  aggressive  work  by 
which  much  good  has  been  accomplished.  These 
missions  have  become  one  of  our  regular  methods  of 
church  workj  and  the  extraordinary  quality  of  his 
own  preaching  and  that  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bynum,  his 
associate,  had  much  to  do  in  securing  the  ready 
acceptance"  of  this  type  of  "direct,  didactic,  and 
hortatory  preaching." 

Dr.  Murdoch  was  a  great  teacher  of  young  men  3 
and  it  is  generally  considered  that  the  most  striking 
aspect  of  his  own  life  was  the  discovery  and  training 
and  developing  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  I  am  told 
that  upwards  of  twenty  men,  both  young  and  old, 
were  brought  into  the  ministry  through  his  efforts. 
Of  this  great  service,  he  was  modestly  loath  to  speak 
and  being  asked  on  one  occasion  how  many  men  he 
had  brought  into  the  ministry,  he  replied  with  ready 
wit:  "Have  you  forgotten  that  God  was  displeased 
with  David  for  counting  the  children  of  Israel — 
and  therefore  smote  Israel?" 

Unlike  most  ministers,  Dr.  Murdoch  was  a  busi- 
ness man  of  great  ability  and  acumen.  His  secular 
interests  and  activities  were  largely  prompted  by  an 
unselfish  desire  for  the  good  of  others  and  a  lofty 
ideal  of  public  service.  He  was  classed  by  an  eminent 

Page  Thirty 


lawyer  as  one  of  the  three  most  remarkable  men  of 
North  Carolina  in  his  day.  He  was  a  great  scholar 
and  a  great  preacher,  who  spoke  positively  at  all 
times  with  the  assurance  of  deep  learning  and  as  it 
were  with  the  authority  of  Divine  sanction.  "So  far 
as  I  know  and  believe,"  says  Bishop  Cheshire,  "there 
has  been  no  man  in  this  part  of  the  country,  who  at 
all  approached  him  in  familiar  acquaintance  with 
patristic  and  scholastic  theology" — with  the  ancient, 
mediaeval,  and  modern  commentators  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. "I  always  felt,"  continues  Bishop  Cheshire, 
"that  he  was  the  most  original,  suggestive,  and  help- 
ful expositor  of  Scripture  whom  I  had  ever  heard." 
Habitually  meditative,  his  reserve  of  manner  hid  a 
tender  and  loving  heart,  a  deep  emotional  nature. 
In  the  Memorial  Resolutions  of  St.  Luke's  Vestry, 
drafted  by  my  father,  occur  these  words:  "We  doubt 
whether  the  Diocese  ever  produced  a  man  more 
gifted  or  more  intellectual.  If  he  had  desired  prefer- 
ment, he  might  have  attained  the  highest  honors  the 
church  could  give.  He  had  many  of  the  characteristics 
which  would  have  made  him  a  great  Bishop."  It  is 
of  historic  interest  that  when  the  present  Bishop  of 
North  Carolina  was  elected,  Mr.  Murdoch  nomi- 
nated Mr.  Cheshire,  and  Mr.  Cheshire  nominated 
Mr.  Murdoch. 

The  consecrated  and  faithful  work  of  the  women 
of  this  parish,  the  Sunday  School  teachers,  and  in 
particular  St.  Luke's  and  St.  Frances'  Guilds,  shall 
not  pass  without  a  tribute  of  reverential  admiration 

Page  Thirty-One 


— for  their  labors  in  building  the  cloister,  beautifying 
the  church,  and  raising  considerable  sums  of  money 
for  church  and  parish  house  and  many  religious  and 
charitable  organizations.  Nor  would  the  history  of 
St.  Luke's  Parish  be  complete  without  mention  of 
one  aspect  of  church  work  associated  with  my  father's 
memory — in  the  form  of  a  quotation  from  an  article 
by  Francis  J.  Murdoch,  Jr.,  and  Alma  Tuttle  Milne: 
"It  was  during  Mr.  Murdoch's  rectorship  that  there 
was  formed  in  St.  Luke's  Parish  the  first  organized 
Bible  class  for  men  in  Salisbury — the  Bible  class  of 
the  late  John  S.  Henderson — to  which  its  members 
look  back  as  the  ideal  of  what  a  Bible  class  and  a 
Bible  class  teacher  may  be  and  should  be." 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  I  can  permit  myself  but 
a  word.  Vital  to  us  all  are  memories,  affectionate  and 
grateful:  of  Sidney  Bost,  for  a  time  assistant  rector 
to  Dr.  Murdoch,  who  also  had  charge  of  Christ 
Church,  Cleveland;  of  St.  Andrew's,  Woodleaf  -y  and 
of  St.  Matthew's  and  St.  Jude's,  all  in  Rowan  Coun- 
ty— able  preacher  and  spiritual  leader,  who  by  single- 
ness of  devotion  greatly  endeared  himself  to  the 
people  of  St.  Luke's  Parish  and  of  Rowan  County, 
now  rector  of  St.  Philip's  Parish,  Durham;  and  of 
Bruce  Owen,  who  had  never  thought  of  entering  the 
ministry  until  Dr.  Murdoch  claimed  him  for  the 
church,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Salisbury,  in 
1898,  now  rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Com- 
forter in  Charlotte — a  scholar  in  temperament  and 


Page  Thirty-Two 


a  leader  of  men,  who  has  been  called  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  useful  men  in  the  Diocese. 

Since  Dr.  Murdoch's  rectorship,  St.  Luke's  has 
been  blessed  with  the  pious  ministrations  of: 

The  Rev.  T.  A.  Cheatham,  who  served  here  most 
acceptably  and  energetically  as  inspiring  preacher  and 
efficient  organizer  of  parochial  work,  ever  ready  to 
sacrifice  himself  for  any  church  cause — now  dividing 
his  time  between  Calvary  Church,  Pittsburgh,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Pinehurst,  North  Carolina. 

The  Rev.  F.  J.  Mallett,  Ph.D.,  born  in  Lynn, 
Norfolk  County,  England,  genial  gentleman  and 
able  preacher  who  filled  the  enlarged  St.  Luke's 
every  Sunday  for  four  years  of  his  rectorship — tal- 
ented as  author  and  popular  as  public  lecturer — of 
whom  St.  Luke's  Vestry  recorded:  "Our  Rector  is 
a  preacher  of  great  force  and  ability  and  as  a  speaker 
in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  platform  he  has  not  many 
superiors  in  the  American  Church" — now  rector  of 
St.  Paul's  New  Albany,  Indiana. 

The  Rev.  Warren  W.  Way,  a  native  of  Illinois, 
who  succeeded  Dr.  Mallet  and  served  as  rector  here 
until  1918,  when  he  was  called  to  take  charge  of  St. 
Mary's  School,  Raleigh,  which  has  made  notable 
progress  under  his  vitalizing  guidance — rarely  be- 
loved pastor,  widely  popular  man,  a  strong  and 
elevating  influence  in  the  town  of  Salisbury ;  and 

The  present  rector,  the  Rev.  Mark  H.  Milne, 
born  in  Corning,  New  York,  of  Scottish  parentage, 
ordained  deacon  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  Buffalo,  in 

Page  Thirty-Three 


1899,  priest  at  Cornell,  N.  Y.,  in  1900— under 
whose  strong  and  vigorous  direction  St.  Luke's  has 
exhibited  a  remarkable  growth  during  the  past  five 
years — in  number  of  confirmations,  in  parochial 
activities,  in  efforts,  soon  to  be  crowned  with  success, 
for  the  erection  of  a  beautiful  parish  house,  designed 
by  the  famous  ecclesiastical  architect,  Mr.  Hobart  M. 
Upjohn,  of  New  York.  Now  fortunately  restored  to 
health  and  strength,  may  this  wise,  forthright,  high- 
hearted Christian  spirit  carry  on  here,  with  continu- 
ing success,  the  noble  work  of  Christianizing  and 
uplifting  humanity  in  the  historic  Parish  of  St. 
Luke's. 


Page  Thirty-Four 


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